Thread: Just had a 3 1/2 - 4 hour lucid dream

Originally Posted by BigOBCD

I had previously only had 2 lucid dreams in my life (the first one being about 15 seconds the 2nd one being about 5 minutes) but today i went to take a nap only to have the greatest and worst lucid dream (or any dream for that matter) of my entire life. It was great because of the length and the unbelievable realism of it. since i was aware i was dreaming and it had been going on for so long (i was no longer too excited about it to grasp what was happening) i decided to sit back and just take it all in. It was 100% as realistic as waking life. I could see everything so perfectly. I looked at my hands and i could see my fingerprints. I looked at the carpet and i saw the texture in it. I saw dust in the air as it went by a window with a beam of light in it. i looked at the faces of everyone and they were real and real life. I felt the air pass by my face as I walked. aside from the fact that i knew i was dreaming it was as real as life itself.

Now the bad part... i had about 12 false awakenings fallowed by about 12 different dreams, all of witch i remember. I could NOT WAKE UP. I tried so hard but every time i thought i did it, it turned out to be a false awakening. I got to the point where i was very scared. the thought even crossed my mind that I might even be dead and my soul was in some kind of in between world state. after about the 3rd or 4th false awakening i heard my cell phone ringing. (it was ringing in real life) and i could hear it in my dream. It was faint but i could hear. The ring on my phone is the same ring i use as my alarm clock. Every time i set my alarm it wakes me up, every time i get a phone call it wakes me up, but this time, even though I wanted to wake up, and i could hear it, I could NOT wake up. So i continued on my little journey until i finally woke up from my roommate playing his drums and then coming in my room making lots of noise because he didn't know i was asleep because it was during the day. So anyway when i woke up i looked at my phone and it said i had a new voice mail and i looked at the time the call happened and about 3 hours had gone by. Now, from the time i heard the phone ring in my dream to the time I woke up i was lucid. There was never a break point. I was aware the whole time. and i was also already in the lucid dream before the phone rang making me think the lucid dream was at least 3 1/2 - 4 hours long in real time. (it felt just as long in the dream world too)

I was wondering if anyone has ever had a similar experience as this before? Like having it last maybe 4 hours before. I'm sure some of you have had it last this long but has anyone ever had it last that long while trying to wake up most of the time? Has anyone ever heard their phone or alarm in their dream but still couldn't wake up? Have any of you ever had that many false awakenings in one dream? (before this i don't remember ever having one in my whole life)

And also the way i became lucid was i was lying in my bed with my eye's closed (i was really asleep at this point) and i was tonguing my tooth and it was really loose. and i remember i was thinking "oh great! I'm going to look like one of those hillbilly's with missing teeth. I had my eyes closed the whole time so i wasn't seeing anything. but then i realized that often i my dreams my teeth become really loose. so then i stopped tonguing it and then started again and it was no longer loose. so i realized i was asleep. Then i heard some weird eerie voices and i couldn't move (i still had my eye's closed) and then i started falling through my bed. (similar to the feeling people described when they go through sleep paralysis) So I'm wondering if this was indeed sleep paralysis. because i was already asleep before it happened so i wasn't sure if it happens while all ready asleep or not.

If anyone could give me some more information on what i went through it would be great.

Actually, I have to contridict. Most of us haven't seen 10 minutes in a dream.

I bow down to you.

You mentioned you had a lot of false awakenings.
Its possible that in between one of those you slipped into a deeper state of sleep, then when your next dream started you instantly became lucid?

Another possibility is that you passed into a deeper state of sleep shortly after the phone call, and then later in the day your friend woke you up (you were in deep sleep for hours, though it only seemed seconds between the dream and waking up).
Time and consciousness can get pretty freaky sometimes. I remember once when I was laying in bed I closed my eyes for about two seconds, then re-opened them: eight hours had passed.


Of course, its always possible that you stayed trapped in a dream completely aware of your state for four hours.
I have to ask you though, looking back on the experience, did it really seem like 14,400 seconds had passed? Or that the amount of time you were in the dreamstate is really comparable to watching eight family guy episodes in a row?

I'm not trying to doubt you here. Like I said earlier, consciousness is a very slippery thing, its much easier to believe that you blinked away 3 1/2 hours than that you were in a nonstop fully lucid dreamstate for such a huge amount of time

Sounds just like what happens in the movie "waking life" , the false awakenings and the length. Any way i have to say Billy Bob is probably right. Though i wish isnt.

well it's it hard to know for sure if i was really in the dream for that long but all i can say is that without a doubt it was the longest dream i ever had in my life. when i woke up it felt like it was forever ago that i went to sleep. I specifically remember each false awakening and then realizing that i was not really awake and then the dream that fallowed. I don't understand what you mean by "blinked away 3 1/2 hours" when exactly are you suggesting that i blinked away the 3 1/2 hours? I told you that when I heard the phone ring i was already in a lucid dream (it was after my 2nd or 3rd false awakening) and i specifically remember what i was doing in the dream at the time that the phone rang and I never left the state of consciousness after it rang until i woke up. (about 3 hours later real time)

I know some people don't believe me that i had a lucid dream for this long but I don't know what to tell them other than, what would i gain out of making up such a story? I don't post regularly on this forum and I'm not trying to sell a website or anything. And i'm not claiming to be some great and powerful lucid dreamer that is so much better than all of you. I only posted the dream because it was an experience that i went through that felt very real to me. And i know that people on this website know more than I know about dreams. And truthfully the experience was not a good one. It wasn't something that was fun. it was actually pretty scary.

All i want to know is more information about what happened.

Sorry if I somehow offended you, I was just trying to get more information before deciding for myself whether or not I believe you actually stayed in a dream for four hours. Its a pretty big deal when a person that hasn't had many lucids dreams suddenly says they were trapped in their minds for such a huge period of time (it opens up many new possibilities for other lucid dreamers).

Just so we're clear:
when I said "blinked away 3 1/2 hours" I was referring to the possibility of you temporarily falling unconscious in between one of your false awakenings.
This bout of unconsciousness could have only happened once (lasting for hours), or it could have been happening in between every single dream (lasting ten minutes each).


I honestly don't understand why you got so defensive, as all I did was give you more information about what could have possibly happened to make it seem like you were in a dream for so long

I guess I could give other possibilities:

• Your "special" and can go for incredible lengths of time in REM.
• This was a freak accident caused by something you ate or experienced recently (it'll never happen again).
• You have some type of mental disorder that has causes you to stay trapped in REM.
• Other.

EDIT: This post probably looks pretty mean now. He edited his last post as I was writing this one.

I have been having lucid dreams all my life and today while taking a nap for a few hours I had a few hours of lucid dreaming. During that time, I awoke a few times due to phone ringing and went right back to the same event (person in the dream that I was originally dreaming about). When I layed back down after answering the phone, I simply said to myself that I wanted to go back to the same dream and I willed it. I have been doing this for years and in the dream I told the person that I was dreaming and that I would be leaving soon because I was dreaming...I was crying over the fact that I was leaving soon. These type dreams are so real for me that I am depressed and sad when waking because I miss the person. Usually it is a person that has passed away or an old flame that I used to be in love with. I have been wondering for years if there were others who had the same ability as me.

I had a similar experience with a LD, with about 10 FA's, each time getting frustrated that I couldn't wake up. It happened when my LD bombed out and I failed to keep the image. I wouldn't have minded, and did a RC each time and knew I was dreaming, but I had no control. At the last FA, I said, "F this," went outside, and purposely fell back into Non-lucidity out of frustration.

My LD died when I tried to fly from jumping from a cliff, but flew like an anvil with wings.

ok last night, I had a lucid dream almost identical!!!
I haven't logged on these forums in probably a year. I googled the feeling I had of not being able to wake up in a lucid dream and this is the post that came up.
My dream NO LIE was at least 2 hours long. I loved it its realism the depth of going anywhere in the world by flying. I used to have to basically like swim really fast in my dreams to fly before, but, during this one I was able to study how things worked. I just let myself feel weightless like 100% relaxed and I started floating up.
I figured out how to run fast because before I tried running in dreams and I can't run I slow down. Basically last night was my study for hours on lucid dreaming. It was incredible until...
I tried to wake up. I COULD NOT usually I just try to open my eyes really wide and I wake up.
this time no matter what a full on stretch a STRUGGLE to open my eyes. nothing!!!
I thought I was dead for a min. then I remembered that sometimes before I fall into my sleep trying to induce a lucid dream on my own. I got this feeling I couldn't react or move before and I was coherent. So I relaxed and just flew everywhere and as you did I checked out details of things I've seen before such as my gfs full body inspection and 100% real down to feeling razor stubble(I realize this is in depth but, I want you to understand)
All the way to things I've never seen before such as places in the world. I went to Alaska to see northern lights, and shooting stars.. They weren't constant it was real like just random out of the corners of my view I saw shooting stars.. someone write me on AIM about this because this is weird. I finally woke up and went to talk to someone about it.. then realized I was talking about it to someone in a dream!! I noticed because I had no idea where I was.. basically I induced 4 back to back lucid dreams. The 2nd one was like 15 mins of not knowing then I caught myself in it. 3rd one I forced myself awake and did the pinch test and was still sleeping, woke up from that one in 1 min because I was trying to get up. then woke up in my bed.. I was like FINALLY did the pinch test and STILL sleeping. So I went outside and wanted to see high I could fly just because I never tried it before. and I flew up and up until I was going up for 1 mins solid and saw the entire state surrounded by water, then that is where I flew to visit my parents 800 miles north of here. IN a bee line lol. Someone write me back if you have had this happen or know how to wake when you want to. This is the 2nd time its happened but, only time its been this crazy..

ps aim hercules71185
yahoo chrisrcotton either email or im me

Most of us are struggling to get into Ld's...

You're struggling to get out.

How ironic.

I know, I stopped doing it for a while because I'd wake up 5-10 times a night and didn't get a full sleep but, I'm back into it and going to start again lol

the way I always do it is..
make sure the room is entirely dark, some small like computer lights is ok, anything brighter than say an led turn off,
Whoever is the admin can post this in any catagory they choose.
But, close your eyes and concentrate on any color, I do red since its easy to start with.
DO NOT LET YOUR EYES BLINK (the reason the lights need to be off is this stage, if the lights are on your eyes do slightly open automatically and it will stop this from working)
once the color seems to go from say black to red, all the colors are whatever you want them to be, I then goto green. Slowly let the color change to green in my eyes. Until I can do it 2 or more times in about 5 seconds a change each color to another. then I start letting it create crazy designs that it does on its own, basically holding this state till I see an environment or hear a voice, at that point don't TRY to dream it won't work.
Just relax and by relax I mean in your head kinda.. hard to explain but, I will try.. Basically try to feel 100% weightless. In your head and body. About this time I can usually force a dream or one starts.
I also always wear a watch, and check it constantly. Also I do a pinch test. All day randomly I just pinch my arm. And when I catch myself in a dream my lucidity starts :-D

That.. is... soo.. cool!!!, ive had a long LD before. but not 4 hours long!!

That's very interesting. I'm really jealous right about now.

Can you describe more about your dream and false awakenings if it's not too personal? It seems you remember everything and if it may not've been such a great experience for yourself, I'm sure most of us will be excited to hear what happened.

I'm starting to get the impession that the best LD's are early in the mourning or the afternoon.

But dream time is really tricky. Sometimes when I take a nap, I'm going through a SP phase or something like a mid phase. I'm not awake, I'm not dreaming, but I'm hearing voices, sounds, experiencing glimpses of images and forms (ussually I sleep with the radio or tv on). When I "wake up" I feel like hours have passed, but when I look my cell phone - turns out it's been only minutes.

If you wanna know more about my dream I don't know if its thread jacking and the moderators will like me to say it.
So for any moderators if you delete this post I understand. Please move it if anything.

First, I will give a detailed recall of my dream then, I will give you keys on how I caught myself in it.

My dream.
In my dream I was at my old house with my current gf. We were in my canoe in the pond and I saw a BUNCH of gators in it. At that point the gators were swimming along the surface. We decided to beach the canoe by my parents house and get out, at this time the gator decided he didn't want that and cut us off. As he got in front of us we turned around and he lunged back toward us and hoped in the canoe covering my back and pinning me to the back of the canoe. I was relaxed because he didn't attempt to attack it seemed he was playing. We proceeded to bank the canoe and go up to my parents house. At this time is when I realized I was dreaming.

Reasons I knew
I haven't lived at my old house in 5 years. I've been with my gf for 2 and she has never even seen it before. My parents moved 5 years ago too. I like to take pics of alligators and remembered during the day I saw them moving on top of the water for the first time ever. Not like coasting on top like usual, they were hauling butt.


After I became lucid. I love exploring details. Like things that you know should be there and aren't. Such as a crack in the mirror I remembered. I went into the bathroom and astonishingly, the mirror had the EXACT crack it did before. I also like to explore reflections and details of people. So typically I look in the mirror and check if I need to shave, I never do but, just to see. Then I abruptly grab people and check out details of their clothes and faces. These are just to get me in a deeper state of lucidity without losing it. After I did this for a couple of mins I decided to go outside. I wanted to goto Alaska and see some wolves and icebergs. Weird I know but, I like going places. I began to fly up in the air looking back at the earth, after a couple of mins I got so high up I could look down and see an aerial view that of like google earth(best way I can describe it) I then saw Alaska way up to the north west(I'm from Florida) I made a bee line to it as fast as I could. As I got there IMMEDIATELY I changed my mind to where I wanted to go. I wanted to goto a city. so then I was like I don't feel like going to say New York or Dallas. So lets see how big anchorage is. Its supposed to be moderate sized. I get there and their are sky scrapers, and semis driving around. At this point I wanted to figure out more about my dreams. Like I was napping but, didn't wanna sleep too long. So I wanted to try some tests to see how things work and if I woke up o well. So I wanted to see what makes us fly. I know you gotta imagine the FEELING of it. Not the action of it. So I wanted to test this theory out. I climbed onto a semi and held on the side as he made a left turn. As he reached speeds of about say 30mph I decided to jump off and try to superman style fly without the feeling and I crashed to the ground. I then ran fast and jumped and hovered for like 2 seconds and floated down. I then decided to float. By imagining I'm weightless and floating. I began to float. higher and higher. Thus reaching the conclusion I was finally able to prove to myself that for me flying and stuff is mental not physical. At this point I decided to wake up. I then TRIED VERY VERY VERY HARD to wake up. Like usually I just try to open my eyes up and I'm awake. Very rarely is it hard to wake up only 1 other time was it a problem but, I just let it go.
This time no matter WHAT I did I couldn't wake up it got scary, I tried opening my mouth stretching leaning and opening my eyes as wide as I could. AS HARD AS I COULD nothing. I felt trapped. Like I was dead. But, I did my pinch test to see the feeling, and realized its my dream state feeling of numbness. So I knew I was dreaming. But, couldn't awake. I can't remember what next but, I felt a falling feeling and woke up in my own bed. I was like AWESOME I'm up. As I began to recall my dream to my gf in the bed when I woke her up. I looked at the time it was 10am. I got a feeling to look up online if there is any one who deals with lucid dreaming and if they had the feeling of not being able to wake up in a dream.
I found someone and decided to take a drive over there. I talked to the guy a creepy looking guy with a long slightly larger than average face with the hair cut from the guy from Back to the future. With these black rimmed glasses. As soon as I talked to my gf again I realized WTF I'm DREAMING!!! I did my subliminal test pinch to not look like a spaz if it was real. and YUP I was in another dream. I stretched and opened my eyes as wide as I could and BAM I woke up with my parents in NC. Not being smart I just accepted it and started up with the morning. I looked around and everything was different, then realized its different I'm not supposed to be there. Once again I tried to force myself up, I finally succeeded, I woke up in my own bed. After the feeling of thinking I'm in a groundhog day movie where I can't get out of the loop. I felt funny like I was slightly numb. Dreaming feeling. Looked over and saw my gf wasn't there after that it went blank and I was up for real.

At no point was I fearing I was dead. But, the thought crossed my mind. If anyone has any idea what makes you unable to wake up. this would be good for some things. Or how the heck do you wake up when you are stuck? Usually I fade out of dreams after time and when I wanna wake up I can. This time was weird.